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The Fordyce Letter

Straight Talk for the Recruiting Profession


Amybeth Hale

Amybeth Hale began her career in recruiting working for Jon Bartos as the sole researcher for his award-winning MRI-affiliated executive search firm in Cincinnati. She then served as the Manager of Internet Research for SearchPath International out of Cleveland, OH. She previously was editor of The Fordyce Letter and FordyceLetter.com. She's returned to her first love, sourcing, and now works for Microsoft. You can connect with her on Twitter at @researchgoddess.

Articles by Amybeth Hale

Cold Calling

Cold-Calling Etiquette Applies To Email

by on Aug. 30, 2012


Etiquette butler

“Cold-calling is still cold-calling no matter what marketing platform you use be it knocking on doors, calling people over the telephone, sending direct mail or connecting via social media,” says Leanne Hoagland-Smith.

But often, we forget that initial outreach, no matter what communication platform is used. When cold-calling a prospective candidate on the phone, would you begin your call like this:

“Hi BLANK – my name is John Q. Recruiter. How are you doing today?”

So, why would you do it when cold-calling a prospective candidate via email, InMail, or some other electronic form of communication? Knowing at least a first name is important when starting a new relationship.

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3 Comments

How-To

Use the Sales Funnel For Recruiting To Turn Prospects Into Placements

by on Jun. 22, 2012


Recruiting Funnel

The sales process is a step-by-step layout of what actions must be taken to turn prospects into customers. Regardless of how you look at it, recruiting is pretty much the same as product or service sales.

The only difference is that when talking to candidates, our ‘product’ is a job opportunity and our ‘customer’ is the prospect (who hopefully turns into a candidate). As such, we approach the sales cycle in much the same way: targeting prospects, selling them on feature/benefits, closing a deal, and (hopefully) follow-up and account maintenance.

If you look at it through a recruiting lens, substitute sourcing for all the pre-sales activities, recruiting for sales and closing, and HR for account management.

It’s really that simple.

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1 comment

Fordyce Forum

Fordyce Forum 2012: What Is a “Working Conference?”

by on Jan. 9, 2012


Screen shot 2012-01-07 at 10.16.02 AM

Conferences are designed to be formal gatherings for learning experiences. Typically, they are a couple days in length and consist of sessions led by speakers that often resemble college lectures with some networking opportunities weaved in between the sessions.

Expectations when attending a conference usually include learning some new skills and hopefully having a few things to take back to work and apply to be more efficient, effective, productive, and so forth. Unfortunately, what often happens is that most lessons go in one ear and out the other, because when you sit for several days and simply listen to lectures, everything starts running together and ultimately not much (if anything) gets changed when you get back to the office.

We don’t want that to be your experience with us. So we proudly present to you the 2012 Fordyce Forum: a “working conference.”

So just what the heck is a “working conference?”

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3 Comments

Industry News

Japan-based Staffing Company Acquires U.S. and European Staffing Firms

by on Jan. 5, 2012


Screen shot 2012-01-05 at 8.01.20 AM

At the end of December, Recruit Co. Ltd. announced that it had acquired the U.S. and European operations of Advantage Resourcing for $410 million. This deal will result in Advantage Resourcing divesting most of its non-Japanese operations.

Recruit conducts comprehensive staffing services and information services and has been operating a U.S. staffing business through The CSI Companies, Inc., a U.S. provider of staffing solutions that it acquired in July 2010. The company also acquired Staffmark in October. Staffmark ranked as the 14th-largest U.S. staffing firm, and the deal with Recruit gave it an enterprise value of $295 million. Advantage Resourcing ranks 11th on Staffing Industry Analysts’ 2011 list of largest global staffing firms.

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Editor's Corner

Happy Holidays from The Fordyce Letter

by on Dec. 23, 2011


Happy Holidays

From us here at The Fordyce Letter to all of you, we want to wish you the happiest of holidays. Enjoy this time with your friends, families, and loved ones. Next week we will be counting down the top articles from 2011 in anticipation of a productive, profitable, and all-around awesome 2012 for all of our friends in the Fordyce community. Have a wonderful weekend!

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Editor's Corner

Happy Thanksgiving

by on Nov. 24, 2011


Happy Thanksgiving

From your friends at The Fordyce Letter, we would like to wish each and every one of you a very Happy Thanksgiving. We sincerely hope you enjoy your holiday with friends and loved ones as we do the same. Thank you for reading, commenting, and contributing to this community of recruiting professionals — you are what makes it great and we appreciate you!

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Editor's Corner, For Managers

Making Workplace Adjustments to Accommodate Unconventional Leadership

by on Nov. 21, 2011


TimTebow

I’ve been a fan of Tim Tebow since he was at the University of Florida. I cheered for him then, and I take great pleasure in cheering for him still — and not just because he is a Gator (like me), a Heisman trophy winner, and an all-around awesome guy. I cheer for him because while he was a winner in college, he’s a guy who isn’t “supposed” to win in the NFL — and yet he does. He’s the proverbial underdog that we all claim to want to see win. (Though popular opinion sure doesn’t seem to indicate that… but that’s a completely different article.)

So after the Denver Broncos’ record improved to 5-5 (4-1 with Tebow starting) with a win over the Jets this last Thursday, I was so pleased to read this fantastic article by my colleague, John Hollon about how Tebow is breaking the mold of what success and leadership is supposed to look like in the NFL.

Leadership, no matter what line of work you are currently in, doesn’t have to come in a certain package, a certain style, a certain look, or from a certain background. Hollon says,

“If you get locked into believing that a leader must look and act a certain way, or have a certain kind of demeanor and experience, you’ll miss out on the unconventional person (or style) who can be equally (if not more) successful for you.”

In order for this to happen, sometimes you have to change what you may not even realize is broken. Because it’s not. It’s just not as good as it could be.

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Industry News

Value of Retained Executive Search Consulting Is High, But Relationships Still Transactional

by on Oct. 27, 2011


aesc_logo_300dpi

The worldwide Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC) released its bi-annual report today of client satisfaction levels with retained executive search consulting. Overall, respondents endorsed the differentiated value of retained executive search and its contribution as a high-end consulting service for the recruitment of top management.

According to the survey, during the past decade a number of developments have provided pause for thought and reflection within the retained executive search profession, including:

  • The development of internal recruiting functions (the survey revealed that 2/3 of the companies who completed the survey have an in-house search function)
  • The rise of social media
  • Pressure by clients on the terms and conditions of doing business
  • The challenge of introducing retained search into emerging markets
  • Opportunities to provide leadership consulting services
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How-To, Social Media

How To Quickly Search for Candidates on Google+

by on Aug. 24, 2011


google-plus-logo

Over on SourceCon.com, I’ve written a little dissertation on my journey through the nooks and crannies of Google+. I’m not going to bore all of you with a recount of what I found and my personal opinions on Google’s latest foray into the social networking world — I know none of you have time to read it.

What I do want to do, however, is show you a very easy way to search for prospects on Google+. My hope is that by the end of this article, even the most skeptical recruiter will see the value in using this new resource to unearth potential placements.

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1 comment

How-To, Social Media

Recruiting With P.O.S.T. Planning

by on Aug. 17, 2011


groundswell_cover

The book Groundswell by Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li was written in 2008 for the purpose of unpacking business relevance and use of social media in modern times. There is a concept outlined in the book that is designed to assist in developing a marketing plan for businesses. This concept, called the P.O.S.T. method, can be translated quite easily into a business goal development and planning tool for you.

P.O.S.T. was designed for traditional and digital marketers to help them create a roadmap for relevant communication with their target audience using social media tools. While the original intent of this marketing planning tool may not sound like something that would be relevant to you, it can really help you, as an external recruiting professional, put some thought into your personal business plan and your company’s business, marketing, and outreach goals. This is especially helpful for those of you who are either brand new to recruiting or who are transitioning into a new industry.

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